Grain drill memory

[Eric in IL]

When I was a. kid (1960's) Dad had an Oliver Superior grain drill. It was probably about ten foot wide. When he would drill wheat or soybeans he would go round and round the field working toward the center. Now we didn't have any round fields, but some were square or rectangles. When he got done he'd drill an X from corner to corner to get the spots he'd missed on the turns.

I never asked him, but I suppose he did it that way to keep from using the rope trip all the time as you'd need to do if you had headlands. Did anyone else drill like that, or do you still do it that way ?

 

[tractorguy2]

My grandpa always drilled in a clockwise circle. First time I drilled I went in a counter clockwise circle. he chased me down in his Toyota and made me go the other way. he was sure the wheat wouldn't grow because he never tried a counterclockwise circle!

 

[Timmycornpicker]

There was an old guy here when I was a kid (in the early eighties) who was still using an old Ontario drill with a wooden horse pole that had been shortened for a tractor. It had the lift levers on the back of the drill, so he drilled round and round as far as he could. Last couple of passes he had to get on and off the tractor to lift and lower to get turned around.

 

[Matt in Oz]

Hi Eric

Here in Australia where we mostly don't grow row crops our winter crops like wheat, barley, canola and grain legumes were mostly planted this way. The machines that were used were called combines because they drilled seed and fertiliser in one pass. Round and round and then do the headlands is the fastest way to work or plant a paddock.With the adoption of GPS tech a lot more country is now planted up and back using an A B line. With the increase in accuracy they now plant crops between the rows of stubble from the previous crop.

 

[caterpillar guy]

We used to plant wheat and oats around the field then would go out the corners when done. With the newer and bigger equipment is is not good at turning in the dirt to plant around the field. Dad worried it would take a lot longer to plant wheat and oats when he got his notill great plains drill to replace the old Oliver Superior drill. The Oliver was about 10 foot and his new great plains was 15 foot. if you turn with it the row units are pried sideway in the ground. Since it has to be lifted to turn it just makes sense to plant lengthways. We also plant across the side hills for the wash .Helps slow down the water run off once it gets growing.

 

[caterpillar guy]

Grandpa used to plow around the field like that too. One way for in and the other for out. I learned to plow like that till dad bought a 6 bottom and tried that once then we plowed in lands back and forth.

 

[Loosehandle]

I go round and round unless its a bigger field then mark out a land and go round and round that.

 

[chcase]

When I seed with my older IH number 10 grain drill I do it that for as much of the field I can . The slip clutches are very worn so try and not use them anymore than need to.My 10 foot drill is pulled by my old IH model H tractor so not a big deal.Would never try it with a larger tractor

 

[rrlund]

Used to when we used a pull type combine and a square baler so we went around and around the field with those too.

 

[Eric in IL]

I forgot about Dad doing that with the A.C. combines too. A whoop-de-do was created on every corner. You could hear every time he hit a Jimson weed. The old 60 really had to chew on those woody buggers.

 

[David from Kansas]

One of my early recollections, and scoldings was the time I was drilling, I think for the first time and eventually came to a little drainage that was quite wet but was only a few yards across but the tractor started spinning so I stopped and backed up a few feet, like I had seen my dad to with other pulled equipment to get a run at it. Got going again and when I got to the road dad was waiting there for some reason and he saw the drill boots were plugged and he knew exactly what I had done. He explained to me that you never back up a drill with it in the ground and I never forgot that. Yes, we always worked around and around and then planted out the skips made on the corners. My wife planted wheat several times as I was working at a full time job and she got quite good at planting and making corners.

 

[flying belgian]

We never drilled it round and round but we did swath it round and round when we had the A-6 pull type combine.

 

[560Dennis]

Still have the Oliver superior 13 hole drills.
Dont remember doing the x , but was probably on or driving the fertilizer and seed wagon to the barn to do chores

 

[tom upton]

Here is how I do it, but harrow and roll after going round and round and crossing out the corners when you get close to center of field.
<video width=90% src=https://www.yesterdaystractors.com/cvvideos/cvvideo166735.mov controls>http://forums.yesterdaystractors.com/cvvideos/cvvideo166735.mov</video>

 

[Leroy]

When you drill round and round when you got to finish instead of raising the drill to turn you started drilling out the corners as you did the rest of field and no need to lift drill. Probably did a thousand acres like that. Lot faster than back and forth and depending on type of openers you ended up with a smother field. First Oliver Wood wheel, them McCormic MF then John Deere FB?. And the McCormick was a model M drill but with the F for fertilizer built in. No connection to Massey Ferguson as some would think.

 

[Leroy]

The X was just to finnish the fields, last 3 rounds and some did it the hard way without doing the X.

 

[Tony in SD]

Round and round is faster than up and down because you never stop or cover and you cover the headlands twice at a slower speed. It was also smoother to harvest with pull type equipment as you would normally go round & round with the swather and/or combine.